“Social media for business is no longer just about conversations and feedback“; now it’s an established channel for customer acquisition, retargeting, and promotions. Some social networks are even rolling out ways for consumers to make purchases from within their website or app.
As social media for business gets smarter and better, there are more reasons for brands to include social media as part of their marketing plan. In today’s post, I’m going to explain how organic and paid social media can work together to help you achieve your marketing goals.
But before I get into that, let’s cover the basics.
What’s Organic Social Media?
An organic social media post is content you’re sharing to your page without media dollars promoting it. Organic posts are primarily used to:
- Maintain brand presence
- Relay information / make announcements
- Engage with your follower-base
What’s Paid Social Media?
Paid social media is similar to any other paid advertising tactic as it has an assigned budget and is targeted towards a specific audience. Paid posts are primarily used to:
- Increase brand awareness
- Relay information / make announcements
- Reach people outside of your follower-base
How Do They Work Together?
Reaching Your Audience (Fanbase vs. Targeted)
Organic social media content is pushed out to your existing follower-base, with the hope that it gets shared/retweeted or discovered via hashtags. Most impressions will come from those who are already following you on social media.
Paid social media content is targeted towards your target audience (by demographics, psychographics, etc.) so you can reach people outside of your follower-base who may be interested in your content or offer. In some cases, someone may see your paid post and choose to follow you on social media, thus turning them into a follower who will be exposed to your organic social media content.
Reinforcing Your Message
Paid social media content provides the core messaging, while organic social media content supports it.
Sometimes when a consumer sees a paid social media ad they are interested in, they click on the company’s profile to learn more. If the company doesn’t have relevant organic content on its Facebook Page, the consumer may be less likely to take action.
Moreover, an organic social media post often can give more detailed information than a paid post because it has fewer restrictions in terms of character/word limits and image format.
Take Your Social Media Marketing to the Next Level
Acart Communications offers integrated organic and paid social media services all under one roof. Talk to our team today about how we can make social media work for your brand.